Saints coach Sean Payton has reviewed the tapes of Thursday night's 24-10 preseason victory over the Arizona Cardinals and liked what he saw.

He gave his team Sunday afternoon off and will practice twice on Monday before returning to Metairie on Tuesday morning. All practices at the Metairie training facility are closed to the public.

The Saints will practice against Houston on Wednesday and Thursday before hosting the Texans in the Superdome on Saturday night.

The Saints waived free agent cornerback Wale Dada and replaced him on the 80-man roster with wide receiver Joe West, a 6-foot-2, 210-pounder, who played at Texas El Paso. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Cowboys, but was waived in June.

West was given jersey No. 13 by equipment manager Dan Simmons when he took the field on Saturday, but it would have been understandable if he had requested a different one. West was the third player to wear the number during the Saints' 17-day stay in Jackson. There others are gone. West wore No. 15 for Saturday afternoon's workout.

Payton had a question-and-answer session with the media after Sunday morning's practice. Here are some slices from that session:

Q: What is your overview of the game after viewing the game film?
A: I was pleased with our effort. I thought our guys played hard and there was a lot if hustle. You could see that not only with the offense and defense, but when you watch the specials teams tape. I felt we did a good job. I was encouraged with how we played in the kicking game. We had one big return (Pierre Thomas) and we did a pretty good job in coverage. I think there's some things from alignment and assignments that we have to clean up and mistakes that will haunt you in a regular-season game. We spent some of the morning practice session on those. By and large after the first week, the good news is that we still have three more preseason games and we're going to need those practice and those games to make the changes and improvements as we move forward. I was pleased with the effort.

Q: Did you finally see what Robert Meachem can do?
A: It was real encouraging. For a young player, you receive more confidence when you play like that. He came up big with the post route that he dove and caught and later on he turned that crossing route into a touchdown. Those are positive signs. He played very well.

Q: Did anybody stand out on the offensive or defensive lines?
A: I thought Jonathan Goodwin played well out front. He was a guy that graded out well. Defensively, I thought early on we did a good job of stopping the run. The guys on the defensive front got behind the quarterback a couple of times. He stepped up and made a pass. I thought we played with good energy on both fronts. The encouraging thing is we didn't appear to be too sloppy. We had one substitution problem, but by and large, guys were on the field that needed to be on the field. We had two quarterback-center exchange issues that bothered me that we need to get cleaned up. That can really hurt you in a regular-season game, but both front played with good energy and that was good.

Q: Can you identify why Tyler Palko has that problem so often?
A: I don't know that we specifically know why, but we need it corrected, because it happened with two centers. We have to do a better job of seating the ball probably and not pulling out too soon. That's something we'll work on with him.

Q: What do you need for Robert Meachem to attain the third receiver slot?
A: I think continued improvement on all details such as route running, the exactness of the positions. The plays he made the other night were encouraging.

Q: Is there another dimension on this team that hasn't been shown yet because of the loss of injured players?
A: I think it's like most tams right now. You play your first preseason game and your  list of guys not playing is probably fairly long.

Q: Who has been consistently getting good performance reviews in the offensive/defensive line areas?
A: I thought Jonathan Goodwin had a good game the other night. Jon Stinchcomb has been solid. Those guys up front have been pretty solid. There are somethings wee need to clean up with the second group. Jammal Brown has had a good camp and he's healthy. This time last year he had that injury and that kind of set him back a few weeks to start the season. He's healthy now and and he's had his best offseason since we've been here and I think that's carried over to how he's playing.

Defensively, we have some guys who are nicked up in Brian Young and Bobby McCray, but both ends -- Will Smith and Charles Grant -- are healthy. Sedrick Ellis is getting a lot of work and a lot of reps and Kendrick Clancy is doing a good job.  He;s in there battling with Hollis Thomas and he;s been consistent. We have a lot of time still and a lot of practices left. We;ll have two on Monday and then break camp and the focus then goes to Wednesday's and Thursday's practices with the Texans as we prepare to play them on Saturday night.

Q: Du you see Carl Nicks competing for a starting job?
A: He has a chance to compete. We wanted to get the 1s going and then at some point get Nicks some reps with that group because he also had to go to tackle in the latter part of the game. In order to get him some work at guard, we did it a little earlier. He's big and he's done some good things. Mentally, there are some things that has has to work on. He had a mental error in the game the other night that Reggie Bush turned into a big run. As a rookie, there are some positives, but there's still a lot of work ahead of him to develop. He has size and he's powerful.

Q: Who do you see as being key figures in the punt and kickoff return game at this point?
A: There are three or four guys that we're going to look at as punt returners: Reggie Bush, Lance Moore, Skyler Green and then we're going to look at Tracy Porter and Jason David. In the kick return game, you saw Pierre Thomas with a big play the other night. Aaron Stecker, Robert Meachem, Devery Henderson -- all those guys throughout this preseason are going to get work.

Q: Martin Gramatica and rookie Taylor Mehlhaff are competing for the kicking job. What would set the two apart of they're playing for one spot?
A: One thing about the kickers is that you can really chart every kick in practice and in scrimmages and then in games and begin to get percentages to understand a0 their accuracy when it comes to field goals and PATs, and b) their kick hang-time and location when it comes to kickoffs. That's unlike a lot of other positions, so there is a little bit more exactness to their performance and that's a good thing. Over a period of time -- and what's important is time --  through training camp and preseason week one, two and three, you begin to get an idea of who is batting at a higher percentage and that's important when it comes to evaluating that position. I think both of them are competing and the good news is they have three-and-a-half more weeks still with more games to play and more practices.

Q: With Adrian Arrington's injury (turf toe) keeping him out for a while, have you had enough of a chance to evaluate him at this point?
A: Even in minicamps he had done a lot of things that had encouraged us and again early in this camp. He had a slight hamstring which kind of slowed him down some, but I like the prospect. He's big and he's smart and he knows what we're doing. The key is getting him healthy and that's tough.

Q: Is it impossible to to now stash guys on injured reserve because of rules changes?
A" You have your practice squad and you have your active roster. Your practice squad doesn't secure a player. A player of the practice squad can be claimed by any team. The key is the player receiving enough reps and us receiving enough looks to make the proper evaluation. The thing that keeps you up at night right now is knowing you have some decisions to make and wanting to make the right ones.

Q: Do you think about these decisions a lot?
A: I think about these decisions everyday. I think about the how the running back position will shape up. I think about how the corners will shape up and how it will sort out at tight end. Within each group, you begin to look at how you see this roster taking place without trying to pre-evaluate and really go by what you see. Fortunately we still have a long way to go here in the preseason. Hopefully, the decisions will become clearer.

Q: How about the iinjuryhat has kept Jeremy Shockey off tthe field for much of camp?
A: It;s still his lower leg/ankle. It's the injury he had in New York.  He's battling thought it and just getting himself to where he feels 100 per cent. Today, we had contact., he's parof the walk throughs. I think we're getting to where we'll have him full go. I don't know that we'll have him for the Houston game, but I think after that for those last two preseason games you'll see him with no limit at all. That's  kind of been the goal with him. He's going to give us a boost when he gets in there.

WVUE-TV Fox 8, through a partnership with Cox Sports Television, will broadcast the final three Saints preseason games in high definition. In addition, Fox 8 will also broadcast 11 of the 16 regular-season Saints games. Saints owner Tom Benson also owns Fox 8.

SOME HITHER, OTHERS YON: Former LSU standout Jacob Hester scored two touchdowns for the Chargers in their victory over the Cowboys on Saturday night.He led he Chargers in rushing with 49 yards on 13 careies, including a 21-yard burst in which he dsplayed both open-field elusiveness and an NFL-calibre stiff arm. He scored on runs of 1 and 2 yards. "My first block was against Cowboys linebacker Zach Thomas," said Hester. "That guy's been to so many Pro Bowls. Once you do that, nothing really worries you any more."..Former LSU offensive tackle Jarvis Jones, dismissed by the Tigers recently, has signed with Oklahoma. He will sit out this season and become eligible in 2009...To report abusive or foul language in the Superdome during Saints games, there will be a new program you can text message. It's called "Help stop un-Saintly behavior."...From David Letterman: "They got together, the Chinese, and threw a big steak dinner for President Bush. They served Peking Lame Duck. And President Bush doesn't know what he's doing over there. Dubya turned and said,"General Tso, I love your chicken.' " My time is up. Ed Staton can be reached at edcoachstaton@yahoo.com